There are hundreds of ways to kill a sale. However, not all salespeople have the same #1 and unfortunately, some salespeople have several #1's. Today, they don't get to the decision-maker, tomorrow they talk too much and don't ask questions and the following day, they can't handle the prospect that wants to shop around or think about it. Sales managers (who may be dealing with their own stuff) often find themselves asking, "Didn't I tell you how to do that last week?" It's a real dilemma for everybody involved, the salesperson, their manager, and the VP or CEO as well as the prospects and customers. How's a buyer to know what's real?

A manager that I did not know really stepped up and went beyond the call of duty to help other manager's reps as well as her own. Then, I noticed that she followed me on LinkedIn. I was pretty impressed and wanted to invite her to join my network. So, I clicked on connect and got a pop-up message that said my invitation had been sent. Since when does LinkedIn's artificial intelligence and algorithm know what I want to say better than I do. So, I sent the following message to the manager.

Rick Roberge8:28 AM

Apology

Emma, I apologize for the invitation that you just received from me. It's been years since I've invited anyone to connect and I did not know that the invitation would be sent immediately when I clicked "Connect". So, here's how I would have personalized my invitation.

Emma, I noticed that you followed me on LinkedIn. That and your recent 'stepping up' with the coaching program made me wonder why our paths had not been crossed before this. I have a lot of friends and evangelists in the Hubspot employee / partner / user ecosphere and they usually introduce me when a new mover and shaker appears on the scene.

I checked, you are not a contact in my portal. So, I found it interesting that you took responsibility for making sure that the Hyper 1: 1 Coaching Program got proper attention in your territory even if they are not necessarily your direct reports. That type of person is upward bound and the type of person that I like to associate with.

I see that you've already accepted my invitation. Thank you and thank you for your help.

Have a good weekend.

LinkedIn, your AI does not do what I do better than me. Cut it out!

Last week I got a random invitation to connect from someone that I kind of know.

LinkedIn, why do you allow members to spam everybody in their address book with an invitation to connect and why don't you explain to them that when we ignore their invitation, they will no longer be able to send us messages through LinkedIn?

And, Oh, BTW, why can I no longer indicate that I don't know the person that's inviting me to connect? Have you changed the rules and started encouraging collection connectors?

But, it's not just social platforms that are screwing us with their stupid AI. Last week, I got an email from a client cancelling our regularly scheduled calls. When I questioned him, I got this response.

Ha.

I didn’t decline any of them? Not sure why that happened.

It might be like an auto thing my calendar does as it thinks I’m out of office

So, here's a case of the company using AI and the rep not knowing?

Give me a break. The rep's job is hard enough without his employer using AI to screw him!